Source Reduction – Reducing Waste to Help Sustain a Healthy Planet

Source reduction is decreasing the amount of materials or energy used during the manufacturing, distribution and packaging of products. Because it stops waste before it starts, source reduction is one of the top solid waste priorities of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and for a growing number of packaged goods brands – in part driven by its environmental impact but largely because of the cost savings realized. Leading retailers such as Wal-Mart are fully embracing source reduction as a leading sustainability principle to be followed not only by their corporation, but by their 100,000 global suppliers as well.

As Wal-Mart’s website says, “Our customers desire products that are more efficient, last longer and perform better. They want to know the product’s entire lifecycle. They want to know the materials in the product are safe, that it is made well and is produced in a responsible way. With this initiative, we are helping to create a more transparent supply chain, driving product innovation, and ultimately providing our customers with information they need to assess a product’s sustainability.”

A First Grader’s Experience With Source Reduction

I once heard a story about a New York City first-grade elementary school teacher who, in an effort to illustrate to her class the impact that each of us has in the creation of trash we generate, tasked each student with carrying on their backs a week’s worth of trash each of them has generated. While this exercise might seem extreme to some, there is no better example of teaching the importance of Source Reduction. Seeing the waste pile up is one thing, carrying it on your back is another.

Legislated Efforts to Reduce Waste Through Source Reduction

Even states and communities are getting in the act. Consider the case in Maryland, where the Source Reduction Credit System is in place to help the State meet its annual Waste Diversion goal of 40%. Designed to be implemented in 23 counties and Baltimore City, the credit system, is an incentive to counties to boost their waste diversion rate by up to 5%. Each year, counties complete a checklist of their source reduction activities. Since the credit system went into effect in the year 2000, the average source reduction credit claimed by Maryland counties has increased from 1.8% in 2000 to 3.4% in 2005.

Besides helping to reach the State’s 40% waste diversion goal, increasing source reduction activities can save the counties a significant amount of money. For instance, if Maryland’s counties as a whole decreased the total amount of waste generated by just 1%, they would save nearly $9 million in disposal costs (based on average Maryland tipping fees).

Hawaii is another state adopting source reduction policies and incentives. But in Hawaii, the government is taking the practice one step further by integrating Source Reduction into its Principles of Zero Waste Resolution, acknowledging that current standards of waste management are inefficient and unsustainable.

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Tags: Healthy Communities, healthy living, Healthy Living Marketing, Healthy Planet, principles of zero waste resolution, source reduction, source reduction policies, waste reduction